Punjab Chief Secretary Najibullah Malik on Friday said that at this point they were not thinking of imposing Section 144 in the province or detaining the Sharif brothers and political workers. He expressed these views while responding to a question during a press briefing at the Punjab Civil Secretariat.
He said that at no stage arrests of political activists or curbing political activities came under discussion. On transfer and posting of senior bureaucrats, he said no major reshuffling of the Punjab bureaucracy is in the offing and they have no plan of doing so; only around five to six administrative secretaries have been transferred and posted since his take-over as Chief Secretary.
He also assured the media that competent officers already working in Punjab would not be transferred and all officers are respected. "It is our policy that officers meeting the merit of commitment and competence would continue working in their present position," he added.
According to them, they intend to continue with welfare-oriented development projects, in fact they would be further improved if required. The Punjab administration is preparing an agenda, which would include scanning of development projects that need more funds and highlighting people's problems that needs immediate attention, and for this purpose a mechanism was being developed. The Chief Secretary laid a heavy emphasis on improving the delivery system in all sectors.
While touching on sasti roti, he said both the sasti roti and food support programme would continue. He said the government would ensure the supply of subsidised Atta to 'tandoors'. He admitted that there was no availability of sasti roti at Rs 2, and that gap occurred due to the change of administrative set-up. "However, the situation is under control and a roti was selling at Rs 2," he added.
He also ensured that distribution of subsidised Atta and monitoring of sasti roti would be further improved, so that no such incident occur again. To a question regarding non-payment of subsidy to flour mills, Food Secretary Irfan Elahi explained that the government owes them only Rs 10 million. "We have already cleared their dues of Rs 1 billion," he added.
On the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary Tamur Azmat, Planning and Development Board Chairman Sohail Ahmed, Home Secretary Nadeem Hassan Asif, Senior Member Board of Revenue Akhlaq Tarar, Commissioner Lahore Khusro Pervaiz and other senior officials were also present.